Daily Archives: August 4, 2009

To hear the left talk about these protests that are springing up and townhalls held by various Representatives and Senators, you’d think that such protests are just unAmerican.

And, of course, the usual raft of “astro-turf” allegations are being thrown around. I’ve watched a few of the videos though and these folks doing the protesting seem pretty darn dedicated to stopping the big health care grab.

In fact, what I see happening is the right using the same sorts of tactics and methods that the left seemed so comfortable with during the Bush administration. Web 2.0 communications that networks protesting groups and keeps them updated and mobilized. I guess there are those out there that can’t imagine that happening at a grass-roots level anymore, although that is the MO the left developed previously while denying the astro-turf allegations.

In fact, I’m somewhat surprised because the right is less likely to run in packs like the left is, so a tip of the hat to the righties – good community organizing guys.

As for the left, suck it up and have the good grace to suffer in silence, recognizing that what you’re seeing now is what you defended as the highest form of patriotism during the previous 8 years.

The Obama administration’s health care czar, Macon Phillips, has put up a blog post on the White House blog entitled “Facts Are Stubborn Things”. He warns readers that there are a lot of “scary chain emails” and videos that “percolate” through the ether, but he has the “truth” which may be a little “inconvenient” to those opposing “health insurance reform” (the reconstructed “reform” after it became apparent “health care reform” was going nowhere).

In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to “eliminate” private coverage, when the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

The video essentially tries to tar the opposition with a broad brush, implying anyone who opposes “health insurance reform” is dealing in bad faith and broadcasting disinformation. Watch it for a lesson in pure propaganda.

After the video Phillips says:

For the record, the President has consistently said that if you like your insurance plan, your doctor, or both, you will be able to keep them. He has even proposed eight consumer protections relating specifically to the health insurance industry.

Here’s a dirty little truth which may be inconvenient to the “truth” Dr. Phillips is peddling – it doesn’t matter what the President has “consistently said”, he’s not writing the legislation. And the legislation in question doesn’t support what the President has “consistently said”. So the claim by Phillips is a red herring. Unless the President continues to say that and promises to veto any legislation that doesn’t support what he’s said, what he is saying is meaningless.

Phillips ends his post with:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

I don’t know about you, but I call it “free speech”. Funny though – now that the shoe is on the other foot, this sort of spoofery is “mean-spirited and dangerous” as far as the left is concerned. And, of course, the first reaction of some is to try to make it a racial thing (the same publication which published the cover above, naturally).

And then there was this from Vanity Fair. Seems there was no problem at all with Joker parodies in July of 2008: